Anyway – my eyes are really light sensitive (I usually wear sunglasses outside), and the flash on the weird camera Kinko’s used to take passport photos was … well, it was really bright.

And I blinked a lot.

So what normally would have been a simple photo (i.e., “look here, click … and you’re done”) took a little longer than normal. Those few minutes were filled with the Kinko’s staff person saying things like “no, you blinked again” and “Can you keep your eyes open for the photo?” etc.

I’m sure it probably only took like 5 minutes, but I was embarrassed and it seemed like it took forever.

“Flash” forward 10 years, and I need another passport photo! This time, instead of having a business take the photo for me, I tried something different – I just used an app on my iPhone.

I did a bit of research, and found two passport-photo-taking apps that were recommended by travel bloggers:

I took photos with both apps – not sure which app I ended up using. But they both worked fine. Both apps have semi-transparent outlines that show where your head and shoulders should be in the photo, etc.

The hardest part? Finding a plain, neutral-colored wall in my house. My wife helped – she took the photos. Then I printed those out at a local Walgreens, mailed in my renewal forms … and now I have a new passport. Simple stuff!

What’s my verdict? I think out of the 3 microphones, the iPhone internal mic and the VideoMic Me are the best. They both have nice, sharp sound. I had to boost the VideoMic me volume levels the most, but it was also the most “crisp” sounding mic of the three.

The RØDE SmartLav+ really needed a bit of eq to add in a little high end (the sound is a bit “mushy” from that mic). But other than that, it would work well in situations where you need a microphone closer to your mouth.

Guess what the most popular OS (Operating System) is right now? Windows? Mac? Nope. It’s Android. Check out this article from Techcrunch for the details.

Ok – if you read the article, the stats are really counting usage instead of users, but still.

After you read the article, think about this – are your staff trained in the basics of all the popular OSs (as in Windows, Android, Apple’s OS X and iOS)? They certainly don’t have to be experts in the inner workings of each OS.

The point? We need to help our customers connect to the library, regardless of OS or device. There are differences, and we should understand what they are, and how to navigate them. So that means we might need to do some basic “here’s how all the OSs work” training.

There might be other things that would be good to know for each OS in relation to the library. What do you think? Or – do you already train staff this way? Please share!

Ever wondered what people are doing on their smartphones and tablets? Want to know what’s the newest trend is in mobile social media platforms?

Look no further than your phone’s app store.

Here are some things you can learn by looking at the Apple App Store:

What’s popular – what people are interested in, what’s captured their interest.

Most popular social media tools.

What people are doing – for example, sharing photos, playing games, etc.

Emerging trends – see what’s experimental and what’s taking off.

Maybe you’ll even find an easier way to do stuff

For example, when I take a peek at the app store, I see this:

Social media is huge. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter are in the top 20 free apps.

The election just happened – CNN is #2 on the list of free apps. Fox news is #16 and CBS is #47.

Visual sharing is popular – hence Snapchat and Instagram.

Video – Youtube is #5 on the list, Instagram is #6.

There are apparently a LOT of guitar players in the world – Tabs & Chords is #15 on the list of Paid apps.

Top Grossing apps – games, video (i.e., Netflix), and music (Pandora and Spotify)

The most interesting thing about this sneaky little trend watching tool? The app lists will most likely be completely different in 6 months or so. Try it out as a trend watching tool, and see what you discover!

I know I’ve certainly used voice search. Driving in my car, for example – sometimes I need to find something (like a phone number to a restaurant), and voice search is the best option. I’ll also admit, right now that voice search sometimes works great, and sometimes can leave me really frustrated.

The article made me think … our libraries are all about searching. What happens when/if the primary search function of all our stuff switches to voice first search instead of typing? How will our interfaces/services/signage change because of that?